Hi all,
I\'ve been a massive fan of Rx7\'s for a long time mainly the FD and I\'m here to pick your brains, learn more about the rx7\'s. With stories clouding the reliability of the engines I choose to go down the route of Nissan 200sx\'s instead. I\'ve owned 3 nissan 200sx s13\'s, an s14, 2 s14a\'s and recently sold with regret, my s15 last July.
Here is some pics of my track car:
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/psirus/IMG_2177.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/psirus/IMG_2172.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/psirus/IMG_2173.jpg)
and some action pics
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/psirus/187.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/psirus/188.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b303/psirus/002.jpg)
The s15 I previously owned was built for track but was a road car also. I simply couldnt afford whilst driving the car everyday to buy another car so I sold it at a considerable loss (it had over £15000 spent on it). Circumstances have now changed and I have a 2008 Honda Civic type r as my daily driver and I\'m on the look out for a fd rolling shell or fd with a water damaged engine and plan on rebuilding her from the ground up to the same standard as the nissan, in fact better than the nissan!! My intentions are to hopefully compete in the BDC next year.
Hope to meet some of you guys/girls soon :)
Hi mate and welcome to the club!
I 2 was Nissan...s12 s14 s14a r33gts and r33GTR! Then i gotta rx7 fd! Currently rotor less due to mine blowing up...BUT that was down to me and my lack of experience with rotary engines...mine blew a tip due to detonation... Id say the cars are bargains and the rebuild cost is far less than a piston engine just the margains for error are smaller.
I will have another! fantastic s15 by the way!
Welcome!
Lots of us have had S-bodies before, I think it\'s a natural progression. I had two S13s myself before getting an FD last November, absolutely no regrets about changing, the FD feels like it\'s on another level compared to my S13s for engine smoothness and handling response.
In terms of fundamental advantages over the S15, the FD has 50/50 weight distribution, lower c.g. due to the engine, and double-wishbone suspension all round.
AFAIK the biggest limitation is heat, especially for drifting. Even just moderate trackday use will overwhelm the standard intercooler, so for drifting you really need a good cooling and intercooling solution - quite a few guys do drift FDs, so look at what works for them. FMIC or V-mount with upgraded rad as well as the intercooler should do the job I think. Then it needs mapping to run safely with the upgraded intercooler.
Basically the engine is very sensitive to detonation, so you need to take more care to avoid that under any circumstances, whether due to running lean, too-hot air intake temps, bad fuel or weak fuel supply, bad ignition wiring or anything else. Apart from that it\'s your basic turbo car.
Oh yeah, the standard car has a sequential twin-turbo setup, using one turbo up to 4,500 rpm for better low-end, then both of them above that. It\'s clever, but quite complex and prone to malfunction, also the large manifold for the two turbos tends to trap more heat in the engine bay. So for more extreme levels of modding, it\'s common to switch to a single turbo, which simplifies the engine bay. I have no idea whether the sequential operation is of any value for drifting.
Dare i say it but if your planning on doing a shell up build drift car then a v8 might be the way to go....seems to work for the top drift teams big bhp with reliabilty.
you still get the FD looks with 450 bhp and low down torque.
Quote from: boosted;858016Dare i say it but if your planning on doing a shell up build drift car then a v8 might be the way to go....seems to work for the top drift teams big bhp with reliabilty.
you still get the FD looks with 450 bhp and low down torque.
How dare you!! Don\'t mention v8s;)
Yes for drifting it would be the best option BUT its a lot of work and a lot of cost especially if you can\'t do it yourself. Roughly £15,000 last uks I checked.
What sort of power are you looking for? The standard twins are good for ~400 HP but that\'s pushing them really hard at 14-16psi. Anything more than that and you want a good single turbo. For a 500HP either bridge port or street ported engine any mid frame turbo will work well, GT35R, BW366, GT40R many others available. If you do the work yourself you should be looking at 5k, if you get the work done by a specialist then you should have a well setup car including a warrenty for 10k, that including a twin plate clutch, suspension fuelling etc.
The standard brakes are great, no need to upgrade them. Possibly get them rebuilt for piece of mind as most cars are close to 20 years old now!!
Quote from: boosted;858016Dare i say it but if your planning on doing a shell up build drift car then a v8 might be the way to go....seems to work for the top drift teams big bhp with reliabilty.
you still get the FD looks with 450 bhp and low down torque.
There are plenty of people drifting FDs with 13Bs, as long as the cooling is worked out they\'re fine. Neither V8 nor reliable 13B are cheap options, but both are viable ones.
The FD with original engine gives 50/50 weight distribution without cutting the firewall, which is no longer allowed after this year. (So no more Driftworks S15 with JZE engine halfway back into the cabin). Hence FDs should be at a slight advantage in future.
test, i\'ve written this post about 10 times, spent 30 minutes trying to reply to all of your comments and it won\'t let me post
Quote from: boosted;857972Hi mate and welcome to the club!
I 2 was Nissan...s12 s14 s14a r33gts and r33GTR! Then i gotta rx7 fd! Currently rotor less due to mine blowing up...BUT that was down to me and my lack of experience with rotary engines...mine blew a tip due to detonation... Id say the cars are bargains and the rebuild cost is far less than a piston engine just the margains for error are smaller.
I will have another! fantastic s15 by the way!
Ah nice, how do you find the fd to drive compared to the datsuns? thanks for the info :)
Quote from: samoht;858002Welcome!
Lots of us have had S-bodies before, I think it\'s a natural progression. I had two S13s myself before getting an FD last November, absolutely no regrets about changing, the FD feels like it\'s on another level compared to my S13s for engine smoothness and handling response.
In terms of fundamental advantages over the S15, the FD has 50/50 weight distribution, lower c.g. due to the engine, and double-wishbone suspension all round.
AFAIK the biggest limitation is heat, especially for drifting. Even just moderate trackday use will overwhelm the standard intercooler, so for drifting you really need a good cooling and intercooling solution - quite a few guys do drift FDs, so look at what works for them. FMIC or V-mount with upgraded rad as well as the intercooler should do the job I think. Then it needs mapping to run safely with the upgraded intercooler.
Basically the engine is very sensitive to detonation, so you need to take more care to avoid that under any circumstances, whether due to running lean, too-hot air intake temps, bad fuel or weak fuel supply, bad ignition wiring or anything else. Apart from that it\'s your basic turbo car.
Oh yeah, the standard car has a sequential twin-turbo setup, using one turbo up to 4,500 rpm for better low-end, then both of them above that. It\'s clever, but quite complex and prone to malfunction, also the large manifold for the two turbos tends to trap more heat in the engine bay. So for more extreme levels of modding, it\'s common to switch to a single turbo, which simplifies the engine bay. I have no idea whether the sequential operation is of any value for drifting.
I\'ve read up quite a bit about these and my mate has said everything your saying, which is very reassuring. Thanks for the information, appreciated!
Quote from: boosted;858016Dare i say it but if your planning on doing a shell up build drift car then a v8 might be the way to go....seems to work for the top drift teams big bhp with reliabilty.
you still get the FD looks with 450 bhp and low down torque.
A v8 would be the logical choice however i priced up a ls conversion for the datsun and it started to run in to the thousands upto about 10k. Seeing as my mate can rebuild the rotor engine and with a single turbo setup and supporting mods you can achieve 450 hp thats ample for me.
Quote from: Grant Monkhouse;858020How dare you!! Don\'t mention v8s;)
Yes for drifting it would be the best option BUT its a lot of work and a lot of cost especially if you can\'t do it yourself. Roughly £15,000 last uks I checked.
What sort of power are you looking for? The standard twins are good for ~400 HP but that\'s pushing them really hard at 14-16psi. Anything more than that and you want a good single turbo. For a 500HP either bridge port or street ported engine any mid frame turbo will work well, GT35R, BW366, GT40R many others available. If you do the work yourself you should be looking at 5k, if you get the work done by a specialist then you should have a well setup car including a warrenty for 10k, that including a twin plate clutch, suspension fuelling etc.
The standard brakes are great, no need to upgrade them. Possibly get them rebuilt for piece of mind as most cars are close to 20 years old now!!
I\'m looking for about 400 - 450hp with at least 350 at the wheels ideally. hopefully after building the datsun up from scratch i have a few contacts and can cut this figure to more 7k ish i hope. Does this look right to you, i heard you can buy an indestructable seal and that if detonation should occur, the seal just bends and doesn;t take out a rotor and you can also take it apart hammer it back into shape and your good to go again?
Am i missing anything here, i don;t want to have any sort of detonation at all.
street port
single turbo (unknow what one yet, can;t be too laggy but must be good for 450, been looking at the t71r\'s, haven;t had a look at the two turbo\'s you mentioned)
fpr
stainless mani
exhaust, downpipe and cat back and mid section (if there is one)
I\'ve heard you can relocate 2 of the injectors to the front and replace the rears?
fuel pump (skyline pump or walbro equivalent)
V - mount
PFC and get the car mapped
Quote from: samoht;858055There are plenty of people drifting FDs with 13Bs, as long as the cooling is worked out they\'re fine. Neither V8 nor reliable 13B are cheap options, but both are viable ones.
The FD with original engine gives 50/50 weight distribution without cutting the firewall, which is no longer allowed after this year. (So no more Driftworks S15 with JZE engine halfway back into the cabin). Hence FDs should be at a slight advantage in future.
I didn\'t know that, that would be why thy are selling the dw s15 then, makes sense now. Does this apply to other modifications such as, moving the steeing rack and fabication of new hubs for better lock etc or is it just the firewall?
Thanks everyone for your comments. It has given me a lot more info about the FD, looking forward to actually getting one shortly :)
mines got pretty much what you are after and is for sale if you fancy one already done?
Quote from: adamfitz;858368mines got pretty much what you are after and is for sale if you fancy one already done?
I\'m clicking the piston heads link on your for sale thread but it\'s just bringing up lots of rx7\'s which one is yours?
Bummer, means the advert has finished. What\'s your email address and I will send over all the details and piks instead
psirus03 at hotmail dot com
will get some details fired over later buddy
So having started this thread sometime ago, i finally managed to get myself 2 rx7\'s, 1 a rolling shell bare and the other complete minus engine and box.
Anyone know how i become a member?
Hello Richy
You can join via this link here (http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/payments.php)
Quote from: clive;880473Hello Richy
You can join via this link here (http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/payments.php)
Thanks very much clive